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AMMAN — The number of lambs in the period from November 1, 2014 to March 31, 2015 decreased by 0.3 per cent compared to the same period between 2013 and 2014, a Department of Statistics’ (DoS) report showed Thursday.

Initial results of a DoS survey conducted on the number of lambs showed the population fell from 2,857,783 heads in the 2013-2014 period to around 2,848,898 heads in the 2014-2015 period.

The same survey also showed a 3.8 per cent drop in goat numbers from 950,265 heads in the 2013-2014 period to 914,190 in the 2014-2015 period. 

AMMAN – A photo of a pickup truck carrying a large number of public school students on their way to school in Amman on Thursday stirred controversy among people on social media.

On its popular Facebook page, Amen FM, the Public Security Department’s official radio station, posted the photo taken by the traffic police. It went viral. 

The driver was caught red-handed making a living out of driving students to their school via his pickup, according to Amen FM.  

Commenting on the photo on Facebook, Najih Bani Issa said the driver was “disregarding” the lives of students, blaming their parents for agreeing to put their children on the pickup.

“This is a crime,” said another commenter, Bashar Zioud.

Ahmed Arakzeh, on the other hand, said the pickup seems to be safer than some classrooms, naming those criticising the photo “hypocrites” for considering it a crime against children.

Ahmad Abu Najeh Altous pointed out that parents would not allow their children to go through such an experience if they had the financial abilities to do otherwise.  

However, a person claiming to the parent of one of the students in the picture said the school is located near the house and that the driver, whom she said is well known to the parents, drives carefully.  

Jordan Teachers Association Spokesperson Ayman Okour noted in remarks to The Jordan Times that pickups are very often used to dispatch students to their schools, especially in villages where there are no better means of transportation. 

“Students in most of the Kingdom’s villages go to school this way,” he said, noting that the Education Ministry only provides transportation to students whose schools have been merged and relocated.

Okour commended that the Amen FM’s initiative in posting the photo helps increase awareness among parents over such safety issues. 

Director General of the Transportation Regulatory Commission Marwan Hmoud said private vehicles are not allowed to transport students to and from schools in return for money.

“Currently, this is against the law,” he told The Jordan Times. 

Nevertheless, he cited a new plan to regulate the transportation of public school students in order to provide safe passage for students in the face of current absence of a regular means of conveyance to take them from home to school and back.

AMMAN — The Environment Ministry has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Business Development Centre (BDC) to implement the Green Entrepreneurship Programme.

The project, which the first of its kind in Jordan, is funded by the EU in cooperation with SCP/RAC, through SWITCH Med initiative for the Mediterranean Sea Basin, a ministry statement released on Thursday said.

Under the memorandum, the BDC will train 160 entrepreneurs from different Jordanian governorates and provide them with the needed skills and tools for turning innovative ideas into successful green businesses.

Environment Minister Taher Shakhshir called the memorandum of understanding “a genuine example for public-private partnership”, according to the statement.

AMMAN — Border Guards received 158 Syrian refugees during the past 48 hours and transferred them to shelters and camps set up for this purpose, an army source said Thursday.

Royal Medical Services cadres provided essential healthcare services and medications for the sick and injured, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

AMMAN — His Majesty King Abdullah on Wednesday stressed Jordan's support for the efforts exerted to restore the legitimate authority in Yemen and to ensure a secure future for the Yemeni people. 

During talks with Yemen's President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi on the sidelines of the 70th Plenary Session of the UN General Assembly in New York, the two leaders reviewed efforts under way to achieve security in Yemen and the need to arrive at a solution that guarantees restoring Yemen's stability, according to a Royal Court statement.

The Yemeni president expressed his appreciation of the King's stands,  and praised His Majesty’s address to the UN summit. 

The Monarch also met with Chairman Dragan Čović of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina in New York on Wednesday. At the meeting, King Abdullah stressed the importance of coordinating all efforts, regional and international, to combat terrorism. 

They stressed the need to highlight the message of Islam, which calls for tolerance and moderation.

The two leaders asserted the need to boost commercial exchange and economic cooperation between the two countries, especially in the areas of tourism and health.   

Also on Wednesday, His Majesty met with the Jordanian media delegation that attended the UN meeting.

During the meeting, attended by Royal Court Chief Fayez Tarawneh, the King highlighted the main issues that topped the agenda of his working visit to New York and his meetings with world leaders and heads of the delegations participating in the General Assembly meeting. 

The media delegation comprised Feisal Shboul, director general of the Jordan News Agency, Petra, Mohammad Tarawneh, director general of the Jordan Radio and Television Corporation, Mohammad Tal, Ad-Dustour editor-in-chief, Tareq Momani, Al Rai’s chief editor, Samir Barhoum, chief editor of The Jordan Times and Fahed Khitan, editor-in-chief adviser at Al Ghad newspaper.

AMMAN — Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh and Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Wednesday co-chaired a joint meeting on human rights, peace, security and the role of the UN Security Council (UNSC) in this regard.  

At the meeting, Judeh said the UNSC has worked over the past years on several human rights issues but despite progress and the council's ability to effect changes pertaining to human rights, the goals set have not been fully materialised. 

Judeh stressed that it is the responsibility of the Security Council to stop massacres and violations of human rights, pointing out that the international community has failed in handling Israeli breaches and acts of aggression against the Palestinians living in Israeli occupied territories, including East Jerusalem. 

He added that the international community has repeatedly failed to hold Israel accountable for its crimes against the Palestinian people. 

Judeh called for better protection of human rights during conflicts and post conflicts, stressing the importance of suggested UNSC reforms to achieve the envisioned outcomes.   

Jordan supports a French initiative calling for reforming the Security Council that aims to make protecting human life a real priority and it is timely in light of recent events, he said. 

AMMAN — The Council of Ministers on Wednesday endorsed the 2015 amended draft agriculture law as part of the government›s measures to resolve tresspassing on forest lands.

The draft law comes in accordance with measures implemented in several sectors to prevent violations on water, electricity, the General Secondary Education Certificate Examination (Tawjihi) and forest lands, in order to retrieve Jordan›s status and deter violators, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The amendments impose harsher penalties related to violations on forests and pastures by prohibiting the issuance of commuted sentences against violators.

A total of 12,000 violations have been recorded on bare forestry lands and 7,000-8,000 breaches occurred during the last 25 years, Agriculture Minister Akef Zu’bi told The Jordan Times earlier. 

Forestry lands amount to 1.5 million dunums, of which 250,000 dunums are bare, 400,000 dunums are natural forests, 500,000 dunums are planted forests and 350,000 are nature reserves, forestry department director Eid Zu’bi recently told The Jordan Times.

Forests in Jordan constitute less than 1 per cent of the country’s total area of 97,000 square kilometres.

AMMAN – Jordan has returned to relying heavily on liquefied natural gas (LNG) for electricity production after more than four years of using expensive heavy fuel, according to Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Ibrahim Saif. 

The minister said that as of July this year, nearly 85 per cent of the Kingdom's power generation depended on natural gas, a step he said has reduced the national power bill and promises a brighter energy future for the country.

After incurring "huge" losses in past years following the halt of imports of natural gas from Egypt due to a series of explosions targeting the pipeline that used to supply the Kingdom, Saif said the energy bill used to constitute 20 per cent of the gross domestic product. 

Speaking on the sidelines of a press conference held to announce the Energise Jordan 2015 forum, the official described that the return to relying on LNG as a success story for the Kingdom's energy sector.

By 2014, over 80 per cent of the government’s borrowing was used to cover the state-owned National Electric Power Company's losses caused by disruption of gas supplies. 

In a bid to diversify energy resources, the Kingdom recently opened an LNG terminal in Aqaba and received its first shipment from international energy giant Shell in July. 

Saif said he expects a better energy future in the medium term but noted that there are still some legislative obstacles that need to be solved to boost the utilisation of renewable energy. 

AMMAN — Judicial Council President Hisham Tal, who also heads the Court of Cassation, on Wednesday met with President of the Constitutional Council of France Jean-Louis Debré and discussed legal and judicial cooperation.

Tal reviewed the most significant developments in the Jordanian judicial system and the processes of the judicial authority, referring to the recent constitutional amendments which contributed to the establishment of a Constitutional Court.

Debré spoke of the French experience of supervision on the constitutionality of laws and commended Jordan’s role in spreading the values of respect and tolerance.

AMMAN — The Civil Service Bureau (CSB) on Wednesday announced that Thursday is the last day on which it will accept applications from high-achieving university graduates seeking to join public institutions, according to CSB President Khalaf Hmeisat, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The CSB on September 20 started receiving applications from successful students in the specialisations of engineering, business, IT and law, under a Cabinet decision to employ 150 top public and private university graduates. The decision is aimed at providing the public sector with highly educated employees.